34 August 15 • 2019
jn

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T

he Yellowjackets and the Sencalar/
Glassman Quintet share a love for 
jazz performance and teaching about 
their favorite style, but they bring a range of 
differences to music stages and classrooms.
While the Yellowjackets ensemble has built 
a 35-year career with 24 albums (two win-
ners out of 17 Grammy nominations) and 
its members work with college students, the 
quintet is in its early phase with preparing 
the group’
s first album and conducting ele-
mentary school programs.
Their approaches add to the diversity to be 
spotlighted during the 40th annual Detroit 
Jazz Festival, which runs Aug. 30-Sept. 2 on 
multiple stages in the hub of the city. 
Headliners include artist-in-resident bass-
ist Stanley Clarke. Also appearing will be 
former artists-in-residence, such as double 
bassist Ron Carter, guitarist Pat Metheny, 
saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Danilio 
Pérez and trumpeter Terence Blanchard.
“The festival has been a mainstay of jazz 
performance for a long time, and it’
s always 
nice to be part of that festival,
” says Bob 
Mintzer, Yellowjackets saxophonist, arrang-
er and composer who works with pianist 
Russell Ferrante, drummer William Kennedy 
and bassist Dane Alderson. 
“I’
ve been to the festival at least three times 
with Yellowjackets and at least once myself as 
part of the big band that’
s the mainstay of the 
festival. The band had a tribute to pianist and 

composer Dave Brubeck.
“This year, we will be featuring our latest 
recording, Raising Our Voice, done with 
vocalist Luciana Souza, who will join us 
in Detroit. The title is our personal way of 
saying things could be better in the world 
through art and music.
”
Mintzer says “Strange Time” has special 
meaning for him. It is a double entendre with 
time understood as both meter in music and 
the current span in our lives.
Besides the Yellowjackets, Mintzer is chair 
of the jazz studies program at the University 
of Southern California Thornton School of 
Music in Los Angeles, where Ferrante and 
Kennedy also are faculty members. 
Mintzer, who next year is having his 50th 
anniversary as a graduate of Interlochen, also 
is chief conductor of the WDR Big Band in 
Cologne, Germany. He writes, arranges and 
conducts between two and five productions a 
year and is preparing for new recordings.
“
One of the defining qualities of the 
Yellowjackets is the openness in terms of 
style,
” says Mintzer, raised in Judaism and 
who has performed at festivals in Israel. “We 
incorporate a lot of different styles of music 
— straight-ahead jazz, R&B, gospel, classical, 
African, Brazilian. That’
s not such a unique 
trait, but I would say every group has its brew 
or blend of styles that defines its sound.
“Yellowjackets is a partnership band. There 
are no leaders, so each is called upon to con-
tribute as an equal part of the whole. I think 
we’
ve all grown, matured and changed in our 

habits, tastes and the way we relate.
”
Zach Adleman, a drummer with the 
Sencalar/Glassman Quintet, also has Jewish 
roots and continues to play the djembe at 
Temple Ner Tamid in New Jersey, where he 
grew up.
Adleman just completed his master’
s 
degree at Michigan State University, where he 
met his festival bandmates and is having lots 
of summertime performance and teaching 
experience before beginning advanced stud-
ies at Juilliard.
This is not his first year at the Detroit Jazz 
Festival, and the quintet is only one of the 
groups with which he is involved. 
“In 2017, I competed in the J.C. Heard 
National Drums Competition at the festival,
” 
Adleman says. “I led my own trio, featuring 
Rodney Whitaker, and won.
” 
Adleman became fascinated with drums 
as a 6-year-old invited to try a set owned by 
neighbors. Formal lessons began in elemen-
tary school, and he went on to appear in 
programs at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center 
and the Newport Jazz Festival as well as on 
recordings. 
“I’
ve enjoyed serving on the faculty of the 
Jazz Institute @ Brevard and the Jazz House 
Kids Summer Workshop,
” he says. “Last 
summer, it was exciting to play with Winston 
Marsalis.
”
Altin Sencalar of Texas and Chris 
Glassman of Colorado are headed for New 
York after finishing at MSU. They are trom-
bonists who joined together to position their 
favorite instrument to hold the melody and 
thereby bring a new texture to jazz sounds.
Sencalar, on tenor trombone, and 
Glassman, on bass trombone, also will be 
joined by bassist Rodney Whitaker and gui-
tarist Nathan Borton at the festival.
“We really came together doing an educa-
tional program in the East Lansing elementa-
ry schools,
” says Sencalar, who composes and 
has opened for the O’
Jays and Chaka Khan. 
“We wanted to bring jazz into the schools.
”
Glassman, also a composer, has performed 
in classical concerts as well as jazz con-
certs. Jazz has placed him with the Rodney 
T. Whitaker Group and the Gathering 
Orchestra in contrast to the classical Nexus 
Brass Quintet and the Denver Brass. 
“I love that with bass trombone you have 
extra tubing,
” says Glassman, who played 
with the Michigan State Jazz Orchestra at 
last year’
s festival. “With that, I can play a lot 
lower and louder.
” ■

music
arts&life
All That
JAZZ

Diverse Jewish musicians 
share love of teaching and 
performing at Detroit festival. 

The Yellowjackets Ensemble has been together for 35 years.

details 
The Yellowjackets and 
the Sencalar/Glassman 
Quintet perform 
Saturday, Aug. 31, as 
part of the free Detroit 
Jazz Festival, which runs 
Aug. 30-Sept. 2. The 
Yellowjackets appear at 
8 p.m. on the JP Morgan 
Chase Main Stage. The 
quintet can be seen at 
2 p.m. on the Wayne 
State University Pyramid 
Stage. For complete fes-
tival information, go to 
detroitjazzfest.org.

Zach Adleman, Sencalar/
Glassman Quintet

JOY GLENN PHOTOGRAPHY

COURTESY YELLOWJACKETS 

